I walked the bike to the staging area where a really nice guy offered to help me. Although accepting help isn't a strong point of mine, I was happy to let him pitch in. The tire was fixed, put back on the bike and I was set to wait for our wave to start.
My friend Kristin the co-race director saw me and asked if we'd take a third person on our team as the racer's partner had not shown up. I said of course especially because it was another female. The three of us reviewed the map, plotted strategy and the course we would take. The three of us were instructed to tether the kayak Denise was using to the kayak Corinne and I would be in.
Coming into this adventure race Corinne said she would be slow and hadn't kayaked much or ridden a mountain bike. I was here to have fun and also to let Corinne gauge where her knee was in it's surgery recovery. Time wasn't important.
The three of us women started toward the area we believed the checkpoints to be. We are looking for an island, but we also are under the impression that checkpoint 1 and 2 can be run to one another. What isn't known is that I've volunteered at adventure races in years passed so I know the checkpoint is a bright orange triangle. We see another team shore their kayak and take off running up a hill. We choose to continue forward all the while looking for an island. We then see a boater who says something about a spillway and we go toward the spillway. We see another boater who says kayakers have come and left this area. Up ahead on shore we see a bright orange object on a box and start paddling toward it only for me to look left and start screaming that's checkpoint three the triangle is white with orange on it attached to a buoy. Corinne punches our two cards and we set off for the next checkpoint. It's on a hillside. Corinne and Denise stayed in the kayaks while I ran to get the cards punch on another checkpoint. Our strategy was to paddle to another shore and send a runner up the island to the next checkpoint while the other two carried or dragged the kayaks up and over a small hill. Garret a pro adventure racer for team Tecnu would spot us at this point. He had already finished and was kayaking out for fun. He made a comment about sending our teammate out to run and we responded it was part of the strategy. Garrett watched me lift the back of the kayak Corinne was carrying and grab the handle of the kayak Denise had been using and start dragging it. He yells, "go gun show." I had to laugh. I loved getting cheered on.
Corinne was a trooper with the kayak and scored herself a hat for her efforts. Just doing her part cleaning up the trace some fisherman had left behind.
Denise comes running down the hillside and we set off to paddle back to the starting line.
We made it back and transitioned onto our mountain bikes. The ride starts with nice flat flowy single track and fire road then takes a right turn where the volunteer advises to use those granny gears and get ready for the 1-2 mile climb. There may or may not have been some hike a bike taking place here.
The bike course was beautiful single track. It consisted of berms I could ride still clipped in, some very minor technical rocky sections most of which I chose to skip and really fun downhill and roller coaster sections. Corinne did a million times better than she tried to tell me she would.
Last was the run. It was hilly, involved a lot of bouldering and a little pond with a checkpoint Corinne swam out to get.
The checkpoint challenge ended with some fun obstacles. Corinne had Denise step on her to get into the closet climb obstacle. Denise grabbed the rope and finished it like a champ. I jumped up after Denise found the technique I wanted grabbed the rope and made my way up. Corinne took the side next to me and powered up it like the obstacle specialist she is. We climbed down wall steps and proceeded to the cargo net obstacle. We took turns holding the net for one another and we all ran to the finish line.
This was such a great new challenge for me to take on and every aspect of it was enjoyable! The scenery was beautiful most of which I'd never seen although it's minutes away from my home. The terrain provided different challenges. The course was the most well laid marked course I've ever been on and the kayak element provided a new skill I want to practice both the kayaking and navigating.
All-Out Events has been doing this adventure race for a number of years and each year Yishai is able to create a new element of surprise. He spends days prior removing poison oak, loading kayaks, marking course, loading boxes of finisher pint glasses into the trailer, assembling the finish arch and the list of work that he, his awesome wife, friends, staff and volunteers put in to make this great really shows. I received a phone call at 9:00 pm because earlier in the day I asked what our time was and Yishai was following up with an answer.
I highly recommend this to anyone who loves outdoors and seeks new challenges all while checking the points and directions their lives are taking.
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